Phuong
An all-around excellent BL wuxia drama
As a wuxia, it really cares and pays close attention to detail, which helps to bring forth that jianghu feel that has been missing in CDramas nowadays. As a BL and a love story, it is incredibly heartfelt and compelling. Word of Honor has one of the best overall quality we've seen in CDramaland recently.WOH is the story of an encounter between people who have been hurt, cast out, damaged and let down, people who have given up on the world. That chance encounter then leads them to find the way back to trusting the goodness in others and themselves, and the belief to live and love. The idea is excellent, and the execution left little to be desired.
+ Story/Writing - 8/10
Most of what was left to be desired lies in the plot. Adapted from one of the lesser-known works by Priest, the story is solid but not too strong. It has both jianghu adventures and political intrigue, but to me the politics and scheming are not really interesting or convincing. The whole thing regarding that LiuLi jia is not particularly exciting either. A lot of the time, we see our male leads stand aside watching things happen. Albeit, there are enough happenings to hold my attention and they hold together well enough. They make a nice background overall.
The pull of this story is found in the many relationships between our characters: the manic, troubled master of the "ghosts" ready to set the world on fire, the disillusioned former assassin who does not want to care but care anyway, whose conviction is so steadfast it's immovable, two pure-hearted, conflicted yet determined boys, a wild "ghost" girl who's never known much sweetness or that she wants it, and more. I love how they could not help but reach out to save each other and found that they saved themselves in the process, how they helped each other see and believe the goodness in themselves. My heart aches in the best way watching this drama.
Unfortunately, there are many characters that feel unnecessary or uninteresting, even the more important ones. Here and there I can find the storytelling crumble or does not delve deep enough. I wish the scheming, some of the setups and unravelings were done and explored better (ex: the founding of the two main love stories, the sects' gatherings, the way they tell their past, the remorse of the two leads, the weird halfway Romeo-Juliet thing near the end, the everyone-dies ending...) but I guess there is a limit on what they could do with their budget.
Overall, I really appreciate the writer's commitment to telling a story that they obviously really love. The plot is cohesive and intriguing enough. The witty, poetic and idiomatic dialogue is a nice touch.
+ Production - 9.5
Seriously, this story was executed so well. The pace is really good and consistent throughout. The camera work and editing were done neatly and carefully. And the fight scenes, gosh they are so good; incredibly well-choreographed, they really feel wuxia. The way our two leads keep exchanging strikes and blows is both reminiscent of the golden-day wuxia and heart-racing. WOH's team repeatedly used a few same sets but I barely noticed. I'm not really impressed by the voice dubbing but it is fine. I wish they toned down a bit of the qinggong, those scenes look too much like flying in xianxia. (To me, Nirvana in Fire had the right amount of it).
+ Cast/Acting - 9.5
The level of acting is good and quite consistent throughout. GJ left a strong impression, Wen Kexing's animated flirtiness and manic anger are intriguing, compelling and sexy. ZZH snuck up on you with his subtle portrayal of the steadfast Zhou Zishu. The chemistry is lovely and when they looked at each other, their eyes were so full of love it was almost unbearably sweet.
The shiny sincere lovesick eyes of CWN's actor are heart-melting too. Later on I really felt Gu Xiang's sadness, pain and yearning, but I wish they did not go too hard in the cutesy direction for her earlier. I guess it makes a nice contrast so you'll see the character development, but I would prefer more of an edge and wildness. The acting of these four kept getting better and better later on, and their stories just broke your heart in the best way.
Overall, I don't have much to complain about the cast. Ye Baiyi and Gao Xiaolian, though, could be casted better, I think. However, I really wish there were one or two displays of emotions that hit me especially hard. There are plenty of compelling scenes, but somehow I keep feeling there could be more.
+ Music - 8
The songs sound good and they suit the drama nicely, nothing really hit hard for me though.
All in all, WOH is really worth watching. You'll laugh and cry and lose sleep and have your heart broken for the characters. And you'll feel healed by the love. They really did the best they could do with the story they had. For people who are not very familiar with wuxia, I think this is an amazing introduction to the genre. For fans of BL, this is a must-watch.
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Watch for the Love, don't pay close attention to the Plot, and you'll be in for some enjoyable time.
Legend of Fei was one of the most anticipated Cdrama ever, with a meaty original story, a mostly capable and well-loved cast; interested parties invested a lot into the project so it was definitely not lacking in resources. With that many things going for it, you'd think the drama would be good if they just treat it well enough, yet it fell short in so many aspects.The story is a coming of age classic - thrown into a turbulent world, our young, inexperienced protagonists proceed to learn new, terrible and beautiful things from people (old and young) they meet along the way, make friends, and find love and their places in the world - but this time it is a wuxia with a female lead. The drama focuses on the romance between FL and ML, which is rooted in deep respect, where Xie Yun truly admired Zhou Fei and yearned for the life in her, and Zhou Fei saw herself reflected in XY's eyes and came to really know and value herself. It is *chef's kiss*. Having read the novel, I am most interested in how they present that story.
Camera work and editing - 4/10
It is just horrendous. The framing and camera angles are so often odd and confusing. The transition between scenes is very abrupt at times. Some sequences of shots are either weird or monotonous. The techniques and effects employed can be the very opposite of effective (shaky camera, zoom...). For a wuxia, the fight scenes are rarely good or exciting, with a lot of weird focusing (mostly put on the actors' faces). I grew up watching wuxia, and in this LoF is worse than wuxia from 15 years ago. This is at a level that is impossible to overlook and highkey disruptive to the story telling.
Acting/cast - 6.5/10
I have to say, everyone in this drama is really really good-looking (even compared to other really good-looking cast), the costume and styling contributed greatly (the bangs, though, is a sore spot).
+ Leads:
When I read the novel, I thought ZLY and WYB are perfect for their roles. ZLY's look, with her big, expressive eyes and pure, radiant countenance, suits Zhou Fei's aura to a tee. Xie Yun is perfect for WYB to show his many expressions and playfulness which I saw in the BTS of The Untamed.
Overall, their performance seems solid, but not captivating. The chemistry is off and on, with the best of it found at around the middle, when ZF realized she cared for XY deeply and that she could lose him, but she was not the type to show it openly, and XY was aware of their feelings but refrained, to keep her at a distance from a dying man, so they just kept to teasing and bantering, while obviously cared for each other so much. The tension there was just delicious.
I think ZLY studied ZFei very closely and tried to portray her in an understated way, and she really went for it. However, there is a certain lack of energy to her portrayal, which undermined ZF's determination and sharpness. ZLY seemed unfocused in many scenes in the beginning (and her aura was kinda too mature for the naive ZF), and when ZF has opened up, at times I found ZLY just smiled softly and prettily, not brought out a particular emotion. Her most emotional scenes are quite lackluster. The zoomed in camera and thick, sometimes overly white make up also did not help her.
WYB did fine and appeared natural enough, but somehow, his portrayal of XY seemed very surface-level. I find that he had talent and a special sensitivity which wowed me in The Untamed, but did not impress here. For the two leads, I'd give an 8. Their acting was good but did not hit hard when it came to the important parts. The voice dubbing did not help, either, with ZF's sounding too soft and mumbling, and XY's high-pitched laughters being a little off.
+ Supporting roles:
I liked most of the supporting actors and actresses for the good and grey side. They were convincing and attractive (except for some annoying characters like Li Yan and that Third Prince). I applauded Chen Ruo Xuan and most of the actors/actresses for the senior roles.
However, the acting for the bad guys really got on my nerves. They all had some kind of evil laughs, evil-scheming expressions and some comical exaggerated evil gestures. There are like 7 or 8 bad guys, and it got boring and irritating.
The writing - 5.5/10
Gosh, this is the bane of the drama. The writing was all over the place and it made all the previous imperfections stand out. Looking back, I think on paper I like the direction they took for many characters and I believe it could work. But somehow when put together, the whole thing felt very loose and redundant. In theory, I like Li Sheng's development process, Li Yan - Yang Jin - Ying He Cong trio's adventures, Ying He Cong's whole story, the invention of Hu Tian Ying character,...
That makes me think of why, and I came to realize these problems:
- So many pointless happenings and chit-chats that it made the pace uneven and really drag at times.
- So many illogical and stupid things, minor and major (Chuchu's brother, the conflicting plans of Xie Yun at Hua Rong, characters suddenly lost and died when they were winning two seconds before, characters stopped to chat while being chased by the enemy, a general took a walk alone in the forest with the most hunted girl and left her there, Hu Tian Ying's plan at 48 Zhai...) Every episodes had some of them, and there are just too many to list them all.
- Dialogues were arranged and written in a very boring manner, even those taken from the books were not put in effectively.
- LoF had the skill to tell back-stories in the most unspiring way ever. The scenes from the past were very cliche and dull. I wish they had left some of it to our imagination. Sometimes less is more.
- They took away brain cells of almost every character. They all made dumb decisions at some point, with the lucky ones did it like 2, 3 times and unlucky characters were just hopeless. The bad guys were especially stupid (their plans were like child's plays, they forgot their plans halfway, they did not give chase when they were winning and kept rushing to death when they should escape,...) There was this man at 48 Zhai that was always loud and brash and dumb, when he's not like that in the novel. I find this treatment of his character so problematic and off-putting. A lot of senior characters were turned incapable and witless to make the younger generation smarter and better, which is just... NO. And the fact that most villains were older did not help this impression.
- The dumbing down of the whole story. All characters lost some edge to their personality. Everything was held together by the thinnest thread of logic.
I think the main reason for this is, so many scenes were written just for the sake of increasing screen time for certain characters, to have something (anything) happen, or to create drama (the whole love story between Li Sheng - Chu Chu - Yin Pei was just... ugh). The story was not driven forward by our characters, but by the writers doing whatever they like.
Music - 8
Wu Hua and one or two other songs sound nice, but the way they added it to create Moments is quite repetitive and not effective.
Conclusion: There are certain enjoyable and cute moments. Characters are likable enough. The relationship between the leads is lovely and quite well-built. Don't watch it too closely and you'll be fine. Just go in for some light-hearted fun and cuteness. (Also, watch it for the hot people!)
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Lackluster
Dramas that focus on romance are not my cup of tea, and my review reflects that. I heard that the relationship in this drama is mature and grounded, so I decided to check it out with no expectation, and somehow I'm still disappointed. I only watched till ep 10, so maybe it got better later, but at this point, there was nothing that could make me continue watching.The main problem I have with OOL is the very forced and unnatural writing and directing. Many things that happened between the two leads and the second couple seemed improbable to me, so their interactions also felt stiff and illogical. The way FL used ML to hide from her dad only to immediately turn around and face dad, how the ML went behind his colleague's back to directly call her patient, how the ML could turn his germaphobia on and off, how the ML's trauma was magically cured by her playing air cello for him, how he 'helped' her practice by pushing her to insert herself right into a group of strangers' performance, and everything about the second couple.
I'm most disappointed by the way they resolved ML's trauma. At first, I was frustrated at how his colleagues kept downplaying the seriousness of his trauma, but then it was cured in the laziest way possible, and I was like, yeah, no wonder they could not take him seriously before. And wow, I know the focus is on their relationship, but a bit more about their work-life could be nice. The drama did not al all convince me that they were hard-working people.
Some of the camera work and editing did not help. It felt like the drama could not decide which it want to be. Did it want to be funny or serious? It could do both, of course, many dramas were successful before. But they had to do it all the way, sincerely. The way it did everything half-heartedly made the result feel reluctant and awkward.
I think the actors did everything they could, but they could not do much with a script like this.
Clips from the drama were very nice though. All the kisses and hugs look very sweet. FL's family story was relatable and touching. And the songs sound super nice.
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